After our first sitting meditation, I read a quote from Pema Chodron about meditation practice: 

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.

John very clearly saw this as an invitation to look at the practice of compassion. We ended up having a great conversation on how we all defined compassion, and how we work with it. How can we have compassion for people who we believe have reprehensible behaviors or beliefs? Who is deserving of compassion? Do we know how to show ourselves compassion? 

Before we sat for a second silent meditation, I read the following:

You do not have to leave the room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait. Be quiet, still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. -Franz Kafka-

I also offered a story about grief and the movement of the heart as compassion arises: this is what’s happening in the news right now:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/us/orca-whale-still-carrying-dead-baby-trnd/index.html

(by the way, the mother has stopped carrying the dead baby and has rejoined the pod)